As shown in FIG. 1, multiple flex cables 1 are typically used to form electrical connections between Direct Chip Attached (DCA) electronic packages 2 and IO boards 3. The use of relatively short flex cables 1 is desirable for two main reasons.
One reason is to maximize system battery life. The DCA electronic package 2 and the IO board 3 are required to be side by side. The further the DCA electronic package 2 and the IO board 3 are separated, the more space is required on an underlying substrate 4 (e.g., a motherboard). As more space is required on the underlying substrate 4 (see, e.g., dimension X in FIGS. 1 and 2), less space is left for a battery 5. Therefore, the battery 5 must be made smaller in order to accommodate the reduced space, which results in less battery life as compared to using a larger battery.
Another reason to use of relatively short flex cables 1 is for better signal integrity performance. Flex cables 1 are relatively high signal loss cables such that there is typically a maximum allowed length in order for the flex cable 1 to adequately carry high speed signals.
However, the desire of having a short flex cable makes system assembly quite difficult. The use of a short flex cable (e.g., ˜10 min or less) in conjunction with a flexible printed circuit (hereafter FPC) connector(s) 6 is so challenging that it has historically not been practical for high volume manufacturing (HVM). In addition, many conventional flex cables 1 need to include 3 (or more) layers in order to meet signal integrity requirements. As an example, many conventional flex cables 1 need multiple layers in order to enable strapline design for signals passing through the layers of flex cable 1. Adding more layers to the flex cable 1 can make system assembly even more problematic as adding more layers makes the flex cable 1 less flexible for bending during system assembly.